Fight for You and I
by AnHeiressofaSOLDIER
Summary: Even after all he's already been through, the death of Lunafreya proves to be one of the hardest things that Noctis has ever had to endure. A missing moment from the several weeks after Luna's death.


**Fight for You and I**

The first thing Noctis remembered after hearing that Luna passed, was having to be restrained by Prompto, Gladio, and Ignis-as he raged about how he'd make the empire, and fucking Ardyn, pay for everything that very second.

He was gritting his teeth, fighting his friends, and unintentionally harming himself.

But then Noctis ended up thinking that injuring himself was the best idea—and he may have even told his friends this; Noctis would never remember—but he was convinced that Specs was onto something in now being blind:

Maybe if they dispensed some pain onto _themselves_ , it would lessen the kind that Luna had ended up having and bring her back.

And ironically enough, it was only Ignis that temporarily ended up halting this plan of Noctis'.

"Noct, enough! Like it or not, this behavior isn't going to bring lady Lunafreya back. And your dishonoring her by acting this way! Do you honestly think Luna would have ever wanted to see you like this?"

That shut Noctis up right there.

…Luna was the sweetest person he knew. He shouldn't have been throwing a tantrum in the room she'd been staying in in Alltissia, and end up staining the place that way.

But then Noctis remembered the way Ardyn had manhandled Luna, as she'd bled bled bled her life away, and it was all Noctis could do to keep from falling apart.

"We didn't even get to see each other as adults like we promised. Not really!

"Did you know the times I didn't see her on TV, and almost forgot what she looked like, I would try and imagine it in my head?

"I looked forward to seeing her, and realizing just how much more beautiful she was than I could ever think.

"And now- now that's all over! …

"Because I let that bastard Ardyn get close to me. And because my father was too much of a fucking coward to blow Nifleheim up in Tenabrae all those years ago! But I won't let it end like this. I won't!"

And then Gladio ended up touching the pressure point on Noctis' neck—just as Noctis had been about to bite him—and the last thing Noctis saw before passing out was Prompto looking at him worryingly.

Noctis—intentionally or unintentionally, he wasn't sure—ended up ignoring everyone and everything for the next week.

He didn't eat, bathe, or speak, and he barely even slept.

He just sat in the same couch, as the sun came up and the sun came down, and he thought about Luna and his father.

Mostly the king thought about Luna—as he found that, for whatever reason, he'd come to resent Regis some—but there were times the two crossed paths in his mind, like what he imagined it had been like for the two of them to meet again.

There had been a small part of Noctis that had worried that maybe deep down... Maybe Luna had hated the Lucian king for leaving Ravus and her behind.

Noctis had even been about to ask that in one of his letters to Luna, but had quickly erased it.

But Luna, keen as always, had noticed it, and had then told Noctis that he could ask her anything he wanted—something that he'd taken to heart.

But anyway, Noctis now understood that Luna had met his old man with the kind of grace he'd always known and respected in her.

"And I was stupid to think any differently… wasn't I, Luna?"

Noctis muttered this, as he looked at the ghost of Luna that was sitting right beside him.

Noctis was almost ninety-nine percent sure that he was imagining the whole thing.

But preferring insanity to the alternative just this once, Noctis leaned towards the phantom's lips and tried to ignore that the real Luna had had much thinner hair in reality.

After Noctis' one moment when he'd longed for insanity over sanity, he became a bit scared of himself and tried slowly but surely to return to normal.

He watched Gentiana a lot, and thanked the gods for letting her spend time with him—in more instances than she'd ever spent in one place, probably—and eventually he ended up asking her this question:

"Are you trying to wait on me hand-and-foot to make me feel better? Because if so, I thank you, but... I've realized it's best for me to take part in other people's burden-"

"Goodness me, no," Gentiana interrupted the teary-eyed Noct then. with obvious grief in her own eyes. "If I let you leech off of me like that, King, Lunafreya would never forgive me. It was she who had the most faith in you in the world, after all. Instead, I'm merely trying to make you feel comfort in me, her secretary, like you would have so found so in her.

"Now... now promise me you won't let her sacrifice be in vain, and when your Sworn Shield comes to you with an idea soon, you'll acquiesce to it."

And looking at Gentiana in an resolved manner, Noctis pet the mournful Umbra once, and promised her that he eventually would.

But now was not the time for that.

Now was the time to let his friends in again, like Cid had said, and to mourn over the ring that in another life should've been a birthday present from father to son, or a wedding band.

Noctis' teeth are set on edge at the thought of his pain now, but he wasn't ready to move forward and responsibly make people pay their dues for it just yet.

No, not yet... but soon.

And Noctis was able to find some small comfort in that, if nothing else.


End file.
